More SEIU Members Want to Leave

On Sep 8, 2017

A diverse group of San Diego County employees are working to decertify the SEIU. If they succeed, over 1,100 current union members — including dispatchers working for the Sheriff’s Department, psychiatrists, epidemiologists, urban planners, and paralegals working for the public defender, the district attorney, and the Office of Child Support — will be free of the SEIU.

One of the complaints against the union is that it won’t allow its members to vote on the contract that the county has offered. A former member of the union’s bargaining team, who is one of the leaders of the decertification effort, accused SEIU of starting negotiations with the county without any proposals. In addition, dispatchers complained that they received “little or no attention and services” from the union.

If these SEIU members vote to leave their union, they would join hundreds of other government employees in San Diego County who have voted to leave the SEIU between last year and this year. City employees in Chula Vista were unhappy “with the quality of SEIU’s advocacy … and the expertise of the union’s representatives.” School district employees who serve the cities of San Diego and Poway were also displeased with the SEIU and voted to leave.

If SEIU is doing such a great job of representing its members’ interests, then why are so many of its members unhappy with its work and why do so many members want to leave the union?